Apple announced iOS 17 during its WWDC keynote address, and one of its key features may have a greater impact on the average iPhone user than the $3,499 Vision Pro VR headset.
It’s the one you’ve been waiting for — iOS 17 is going to let you swear. An update to the iPhone’s software will tweak the autocorrect function, and make it learn when you want to swear rather than write “ducking” and so on. This was the example used on-stage by Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering.
At present, you can manually add words to your iPhone’s internal dictionary. But most of us just get continually frustrated that Apple seems determined to sanitise our texts.
Apple says iOS 17’s autocorrect is powered by an AI model. Yep, we’ve finally found a use for AI that won’t destroy your job or threaten to end civilisation.
iOS 17 features
iOS 17 will come with other neat features, too. StandBy is a mode iPhones can switch to when charging, turning the phone into something closer to a smart display. It will show “glanceable” info like a clock face, info widgets, and even photos.
The software introduces a new bundled app, Journal. This is, you guessed it, a digital journalling app. But it suggests content to bung into each entry, based on where you have been and what you’ve been doing.
iOS 17 also brings a bunch of ways to indirectly communicate with people. The Check-In function lets friends and family automatically notify you when, for example, they reach home.
“If they are not making progress toward their destination, useful information will be temporarily shared with the selected contact, such as the device’s location, battery level, and cell service status,” says Apple.
You’ll also be able to send audio and video messages through FaceTime, the equivalent of leaving an answer-machine message on a phone. And actual voicemails will not be accompanied by a live text transcription.
iOS 17 has clearly gone big on the ways machine learning and AI can influence and impact forms of communication.
However, the software is not available just yet. It was announced as part of Apple’s annual developer conference and is expected to be released later this year when the next generation of iPhones is announced — or “available this fall”, in Apple’s own words.
